Tale as Old as Time
by DesireeU
Summary: In which Tsukikage entertains Reira with an old tale from his clan; but is it really all fiction? (old Japan AU; originally for ZarcRay week, "Seasons" prompt)


"Reira, _please,_ "

Reiji rubbed his temples, tired.  
He needed to go at an important meeting, and the various layers of his expensive kimono were still waiting in the arms of Tsukikage.

What he _didn't_ need, was Reira looking up at him with such big, sorrowful eyes, pleading to not go.

"B-but you promised…!" the young child dared to insist, clutching harder Reiji's sleeve: "You promised we would go and see the cherry trees on the first day of Hanami, and they blossomed today…"

Reira pointed at the wooden window, and at the light rain of pale petals outside of it, to emphasize his point. Reiji just sighed.

"I know Reira, I know, but the council's meeting is very important, and has been decided since weeks; how could I have known the cherry trees would blossom today of all days?"

He was met with silence, and took that as cue to finally start dressing.

Reira quietly pattered his way on the tatami to the window, peering at the petals outside, and grimaced.  
"...I wish it could be snowing _real_ snow now, rather than these petals."

Reiji briefly looked back at his younger brother, but kept dressing up unfazed.  
"If it snowed, then you couldn't use the chariot to go to that meeting and it would be moved to another day. And we could make snow bunnies," Reira continued, playing with the ears of his plushie.  
"I thought you wanted to see the Hanami," countered Reiji.  
"Yes, but it's pointless without you! I just wanted to spend the day with you, I don't care about the weather…"

Tsukikage cleared his throat: "Sir, young master Reira _did_ spend the whole week to get activities ready for a day with you…"  
"He knew that today I had business to attend to," scoffed the young man, adjusting the length of a sleeve: "I'll spend the other Hanami days with him once I get back from this trip, I don't see the harm,"

He looked back at Reira, and pinched the bridge of his nose seeing him in a praying pose, still at the window.  
 _"...what are you even doing now?"_  
"Maybe, if I make a wish on the first cherry blossoms and pray hard enough..." replied the child with his eyes still closed: "...maybe then snow would really fall, and you could stay with me,"

Reiji didn't know if being amused or annoyed, but smiled at his younger brother's antics nonetheless. He decided to go the logical way as usual.  
"No matter how hard you pray, it can't snow in full spring, Reira."  
"But why not?"  
"Because that's how seasons work. The weather changes throughout the whole year to ensure we always have a sunny summer, rainy autumn, snowy winter and...flowery...spring. That's the way things are."

"If you allow me, sir, there's actually a story behind it, which is told by my clan since generations," chimed in Tsukikage, offering the second layer of the kimono to his master. Reiji gracefully accepted it and nodded to the ninja, hoping a story would entrance Reira enough.

"Very well then," Tsukikage was sitting next to Reira in a flash, and suddenly a faint fog engulfed the barely furnished room, casting strange shadows on the walls.

"Once upon a time, there were two gods who ruled over the earth and skies alike, a god and a goddess, tasked with keeping the balance of nature. And such a match made in literal heaven they were! They loved each other through millennia and worked together seamlessly, no other couple could be happier than them."

Reira smiled as small rays of light managed to come through the window and pierce the fog to illuminate the shadows of a couple surrounded by heavenly clouds.

"The goddess loved her people dearly, but thought it would have been best to not meddle with humans, reigning from above and ensuring harmony. The god, on the other hand, loved dearly his people too, but adored giving them smiles by staying with them, and performing his miracles on earth.  
The goddess did not approve, but loved and trusted her husband enough to let him do as he pleased. At first, things went well; people would pray the god to give them the warmth of sun when it became too cold, and the blessing of rain when their crops were dry,"

The shadows showed the god descending from the clouds onto the human-inhabited lands, and with him flowers bloomed and light shone brighter.

"People kept demanding more and more from him, and the god was fueled by all the attention he oh so loved, the smiles of his people his reward. But the hearts of people sadly have no end, in good and bad, and their greed especially knew no bounds, a dark, bottomless pit…"

Almost as if outside the sun got swallowed by darkness, so was the room as the fog grew and the shadows grew bigger, scarier, _angrier_.  
The shadow people weren't smiling anymore, and Reira instinctively held close his stuffed toy in fear. Tsukikage protectively wrapped an arm around them, and with the sound of his voice and a wave of his hand the story went on.

"When people couldn't use the god's power to make themselves better, they used it to make others worse. They would pray the god to give snow to their neighbour's fresh crops, and winds strong enough to send the chariot of their spouse's lover down a cliff; and the god, just as before, gave them all they asked for.  
That was when people realized they weren't happy, and stopped worshipping the god. Instead, they hated and feared him, and shun their love and prayers from him.

The god was beyond rage.

 _'I've offered harmony to you, gave my power unto your words,'_ he said, _'and all you've asked for was chaos; if chaos is what you seek, then chaos you shall receive!'_ "

And chaos they received, indeed.  
The shadows swirled and erupted in a dance of madness, and the shadow people themselves twisted and cried and disappeared. Reira almost cried himself.

"Earth was devastated by the same forces who kept it beautiful and alive, but before it could be too late, the goddess finally stepped in. She was heartbroken over having let things go that way, and felt the corruption of her beloved husband her responsibility. She cursed herself for not acting sooner, for her husband was now beyond the divine light, a being of hate and darkness.

Yet, she couldn't bring herself to end him.

Instead, she divided his powers in four, which took the forms of dragons; and dispersed them on the four corners of earth, giving them greatly different tasks, so they would never meet again. For if they ever were to meet someday, then the fallen god whom she had put to sleep in the darkness of the starless sky would awaken, and bring chaos forth once more."

The fog and shadows dispersed with the dragons, and a small, somber light shone on the weeping goddess as she took her sleeping husband back to the heavens.

"The Red Dragon went South, and he was tasked with the warmth of Summer; the White Dragon went West, and he was entrusted with the humidity of Autumn; then the Black Dragon went North, and he was in charge of the coldness of Winter; and lastly, the Violet Dragon went East, and he had command over the scents of Spring.  
They could never, ever meet, so the goddess decided to divide also her own powers in four spirits, and have them guard one Dragon King each. The spirits made sure their dragon was calm and respected their duties, following the flow of seasons. You can still see them to this day, as they flow through the changes: the gentle breeze which becomes a cold howl, the flowers withering and rebirthing, the birds flying away over the sea but who always return, the moon and its cycles which lift the seas and heal the crops…"

The shadows danced beautifully, petals and birds through the kind wind, the pale moon quietly shining on them. Watching them was so enchanting, the dragons themselves stopped their roars and danced with them.

"Some say that, during certain days, the dragons briefly meet to carry over to their brother the next season, and in that moment the roar of the fallen god can be heard; we have called such days solstices and equinoxes, and in those days our clan prays for the goddess, the beautiful shine of the sun, to keep her warm rays on us and her warmer eyes on her husband, and pray for the fallen god, the black faceless moon, to keep sleeping peaceful dreams and forget the hatred in his heart."

With a last motion of the ninja's hand, the tale ended and the shadowy fog dissipated with it. The light, albeit colder, shone again through the window.

"...and that's why seasons can't have mix-ups, young master!" concluded Tsukikage positively, ruffling Reira's hair in hopes to cheer him up. The last thing he wanted was to scare him, right as Reiji was about to go, too.

The child looked still entranced by the story, and looked back, out of the window.  
He wondered if the goddess ever felt lonely. If she was ever tempted to cause some mischief, just to have her beloved with her, even if for just a moment.

"Sir…" Tsukikage started, the pale petal on his finger slowly melting. Reiji stopped adjusting his obi to look out of the window as well and chuckled. Hard to see, but those were snowflakes indeed dancing amongst the cherry blossoms.

"Looks like I may not be able to go on that business trip, afterall," he mused, taking a snow-covered full blossom in his hand: "With such weather anomalies, one'd think the goddess _wants_ the fallen god to wake up."

And for a fleeting moment, he thought he had seen a warm, god-like glint in Reira's eyes.

* * *

 _ **A/N:**_

 _A little, old Japan AU, in which Reira becomes the oracle and vessel of the goddess Ray!_  
 _(may actually do more with this AU, dunno yet)_

 _This was kinda inspired on the Four Dragon Kings of eastern mythology, and decided last minute to play on the sun/moon parallel also because, if it's a legend of Tsukikage's clan, then that would make him the "chief" of the prayers towards the sleep of the fallen god, and his brother the one towards the power of the goddess._

 _This isn't directly Zarc/Ray material, but got this idea for the prompt and hope it's good enough c,: Thanks for reading!_


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